


In My Care

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Blood and Injury, Episode Ignis, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Protectiveness, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 22:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12567808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: Lunafreya is dead. Ignis goes blind. It's up to Ravus to protect the king in their stead.[Episode Ignis spoilers!]





	In My Care

_Not today._

The thought keeps him going, when he is injured and aching and when there is imaginary fire licking up arm, tangling in his chest. When his heart is lost in the mire, when he lays it down behind him and draws his blade, he steels himself and squares his shoulders.

_Not today._

There is no helping Lunafreya, but for a second– third– fourth– _stop!_ 一 time, traitorous tears press against the insides of his eyelids. He pushes them away. _Please_ stop.

_Not today._

The king lays motionless behind her, agony writ large on his face even in sleep. He looks uncommonly small beneath soaked fatigues. Next to him, half draped over his unconscious body, blood, and the bloodied form of the tactician.

Ravus had watched him fall.

Ravus had watched all of it, clutching Lunafreya’s fragile– lifeless– body to his chest. He had watched Scientia take the ring, watched the amused intrigue on Ardyn’s face, watched the flare of light and then… nothing.

Fire sweeping up his arm, voices in his head. He could remember it like it was yesterday. When the light cleared, the Chancellor and his troops were gone, and Scientia fell screaming in pain.

Ravus hadn’t been able to make it out at his distance, the exact injury placed upon the advisor by the kings of old. But the man was clutching at his face with one hand, blood pouring like waterfalls beneath a ring-laden finger. The other hand was reaching out to Noctis. _Still_ reaching out to Noctis.

Loyalty… how it made you do such things.

Scientia collapsed, to knees and hands and curling around the king.

_Not today._

Ravus found his will to move again. He hefted Lunafreya more securely in his arms and hastened to the king’s side. Whatever bargain the tactician had struck, there would be more reinforcements on the way. There was still fighting in the distance. He would not let their king die so easily. Not after Lunafreya, not after Scientia.

_Not today._

So he placed Lunafreya carefully down next to her intended and drew his blade and focused his hatred and agony into strength. When the next wave came, he was ready.

He was bruised, and battered, and more broken than he could remember feeling. Little mattered. All that existed was the king’s unconscious form, and the people surrounding him; one of which Ravus could not save, one of which he could. Or perhaps not, when he fell to bended knee, out of breath and energy. The heat that had been simmering beneath his skin for the past twelve years– even before the fire had taken his arm– had been extinguished. He had never been able to save anyone. He had nothing… nothing except the king behind him.

For that, he pushed himself back to his feet.

 _Not_ **_today_** _._

He couldn’t continue to fight the horde. Whatever else help may have been summoned was slow in arriving. The king’s safety was paramount… and he cast a glance at both his sister and Ignis Scientia. He could not take all three of them.

When he had cut down enough troopers to step over the king’s limp body, he crouched down to remove Scientia bloodied hand from the king’s shoulder. He slipped the ring from his finger and tucked it into his own palm. “I will keep it safe,” he vowed, and as carefully as he could, pulled Noctis into his own arms. “You can leave me to my care.” He said it to both Ignis, and Luna.

He would not let the king die today.

He could not look back at his sister as he stood and started to walk. He would be back for her. He would be back for them both.

It was slow going, the king thrown over his shoulder and fighting with his magitek arm. He made it further than he would have staying put, however. When a voice calling his name broke through the dwindling battle, he turned with blade drawn out of reflex–

– and lowered it when he saw the rest of the royal retainer. Argentum, and the Shield, Amicitia, along with a small group of who must have been soldiers for their side.

“Noct!!”

Ravus passed the king off without a word. His weight was off of his shoulders, and, suddenly, he felt very close to collapse. Weak, disoriented, numb, tired. Altissia was crumpling around him, just like Tenebrae had. Luna was–

Amicitia grabbed his arm. “Where’s Ignis??” he demanded.

Ravus wanted to glower at him, but didn’t have the strength. He gestured vaguely in the direction he had come, and then started following his own direction. He had to get to his sister.

“Prompto, take Noct and go! I’ll meet up with Iggy and circle around!”

“Got it!”

Amicitia spared Ravus a glance as they ran. “He’s not alright, is he?”

Ravus shook his head.

“Shit… I knew it. He would never leave Noct, not if he could help it. Son of a bitch.”

But when they returned to where Ravus had left both the king’s advisor and his sister, only Scientia remained. Amicitia was immediately at his side, talking and spitting curses. Ravus frantically scanned the area for Lunafreya… but her body had gone, likely swept away to sea.

Hands closed into fists. He realized the ring was still tucked into his palm. He uncurled his fingers and looked at it, stared down at the little thing bearing so much weight and pain. It… had to be returned to Noctis.

When Amicitia wasn’t looking, Ravus slipped it into the advisor’s pocket. He would see it returned, he was certain.

And then he was slipping away into the mass of people beginning to run relief, the few stragglers fighting the remaining battles. Ravus had nothing left here. It was time for him to move on.

**Author's Note:**

> unbetad because I'm a mess
> 
> I'm such a mess I've been a mess since noon let these boys rest


End file.
